What kind of open heart surgury is his?
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Bill Glasheen
- Posts: 17299
- Joined: Thu Mar 11, 1999 6:01 am
- Location: Richmond, VA --- Louisville, KY
First of all, I find it interesting that they didn't put the patient on heart/lung bypass. It would make the surgery easier, and make the risk of a cardiac event much smaller. But you can learn to do surgery on a beating heart. I did fairly complicated experimental preps with beating hearts (in dogs) for many years while doing reasearch in cardiology and cardiothoracic surgery.
I find it dfficult to believe that the doctors thought from the get-go that they were operating on a "tumor." Heart tumors to start with are rare. And if it really was a tumor, they'd risk cutting away a lot of "good" myocardium without first stopping the heart. That would be a very difficult procedure w/o the heart/lung bypass and heart stoppage.
My sense is that they knew from the start they were dealing with a parasite or parasites. I don't speak their language, but it sounds like they got what they expected.
The procedure was fairly simple. Cut the pericardium (the sack around the heart), and get at the "lump." I think it was sitting right on the surface of the heart, underneath the epicardial membrane. So not a lot of heart muscle (myocardium) was cut - if any.
I'm sure they gave some anti-parasite meds afterwards. God knows if there may have been some eggs floating around in this guy's bloodstream.
This may look gross, but it really wasn't that bad. It was more of a medical curiosity than a serious condition. Undoubtedly the person traveled to the tropics or similar remote region where (s)he picked up this parasite. I'm sure the patient did just fine.
- Bill
P.S. Can anyone tell me what side of the heart this was on? Why?
I find it dfficult to believe that the doctors thought from the get-go that they were operating on a "tumor." Heart tumors to start with are rare. And if it really was a tumor, they'd risk cutting away a lot of "good" myocardium without first stopping the heart. That would be a very difficult procedure w/o the heart/lung bypass and heart stoppage.
My sense is that they knew from the start they were dealing with a parasite or parasites. I don't speak their language, but it sounds like they got what they expected.
The procedure was fairly simple. Cut the pericardium (the sack around the heart), and get at the "lump." I think it was sitting right on the surface of the heart, underneath the epicardial membrane. So not a lot of heart muscle (myocardium) was cut - if any.
I'm sure they gave some anti-parasite meds afterwards. God knows if there may have been some eggs floating around in this guy's bloodstream.
This may look gross, but it really wasn't that bad. It was more of a medical curiosity than a serious condition. Undoubtedly the person traveled to the tropics or similar remote region where (s)he picked up this parasite. I'm sure the patient did just fine.
- Bill
P.S. Can anyone tell me what side of the heart this was on? Why?
For the PS....just a guess...left side of the heart...rationale....it looked to be that in the 1st few frames before the sponges were applied there looked to be evidence of vascularization at the lower left corner of the picture- probably pulmonic veins. Since arteries and veins enter and exit through the upper portion of the heart, I'm guessing the view was probably from the head looking down the chest, therefore the left anterior side of the heart...like I said...just a guess..
